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J. Baylor Roberts, National Geographic Staff
"Ah, C'est Magnifique!" Washington, D. C., Diners Admire the Piece de Resistance
Truffles were prized by the Greeks and Romans,
but the plant's origin and manner of growth long
puzzled scholars. Cicero thought them daughters
of the earth conceived by the sun. Porphyrius
considered them children of the gods. Plutarch
asserted they were produced by the conjoined
action of lightning, warmth, and water on the
soil. Pliny called them nature's most wonderful
creations.
The ancients dedicated the black fungus to
Venus, in the belief that it stimulated love. The
legend still survives. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin,
18th-century French gourmet, declared in The
Physiology of Taste that truffles make women
more tender and men more affectionate.
Perhaps someday truffles will be as popular on
American dining tables as they are in Europe.
At its Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville,
Maryland, the United States Department of Agri
culture is conducting experiments in truffle rais
ing.
Test beds, now five years old, are still not suffi
ciently mature to indicate whether or not truffles
can be domesticated successfully.